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WECS Electric Supply, Inc© |
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Americas Leading Electrical Solutions Supplier to the Wind Power Industry. |
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“ As yet the wind is an untamed and unharnessed force; and quite possibly one of the greatest discoveries hereafter to be made will be the taming and harnessing of the wind”. Abraham Lincoln
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WECS© |
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© Copyright 2009. WECS Electric Supply, Inc. |
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Bruce Hammett Founder / President / CEO |
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As the temperate Southern California breeze rolls east past the San Jacinto Mountains and into the Coachella Valley, the blistering sun warms the air, drawing it to a higher altitude. The resulting vacuum creates a cycle of westerly winds that fuel an entire landscape of monolithic turbine towers and blades rising up to 400 feet over a dusty maze of dirt roads.
Bruce Hammett, President of WECS Electric Supply Inc., Palm Springs, Calif., relies on this climatic phenomenon to fuel his business. WECS Electric Supply (Wind Energy Conversion Systems) in 1989 as a supplier of electrical components for the wind-energy industry. Today the company is one of the leading ELECTRICAL SOLUTIONS suppliers to the wind power energy in North America, and the World.
The thousands of wind turbines across California currently account for perhaps less than 2 percent of the state's energy production, but the state is still ahead of most other states (and countries) in wind-energy development. In 1984, there were probably less than 2,000 commercial wind turbines put up in California. In the following five years, that evolved into somewhere in the range of 14,000 wind turbines, installed with the benefit of tax shelters from the State and Federal Governments. And new development continues today.
Bruce became involved in wind energy when Westinghouse Electric led him to California on a project in 1982. That visit led in mid 1983 to an order with to build and deliver control panels to California for some 20 wind turbines. That time and place was the setting for the beginnings of the wind-energy industry in America. The Federal government began offering tax shelters for investment in wind energy and the California state government had a progressive attitude toward alternative energy, also offering incentives.
With the incentives in California, other companies have moved in, making Palm Springs a good place for WECS to set up shop. Several European turbine manufacturers have sales and service offices in the area, as well as a number of key national developers and service companies.
Because of the frequent work with foreign-made turbines, the wind energy business requires an extensive knowledge of the unique components and origins of those turbines. WECS inventories European-class fuses, circuit breakers, contact blocks, contactors, overloads, starters — anything that was built into the turbine to begin with. “There is equipment out there that hasn't been manufactured since 1982, and today's the day it breaks”. Keeping up with old equipment technology spawned the WECS developed ENCORE line of electrical replacement materials for that reason. WECS knowledge of IEC and UL standards and applications, and an intuition for making a turbine work, has helped WECS become a truly national corporation.
Since 1989, WECS has played a key supplier role in over 100 Utility scale construction projects across the United States, Canada, Mexico, Costa Rica, Spain and Chile. WECS is also a leading supplier to the daily Operations and Maintenance of over 36000 Wind Turbines
WECS operates out of a 5000 sq foot warehouse in North Palm Springs with a view of nearly 4000 wind turbines of all ages, and ships worldwide. Our sales and technical staff provide overnight support to the nation from our WEST Coast time zone.
Excerpts and modifications from Electrical Distributor Magazine, July 2001
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